Breaking news! Mock engagement with Slovakian army goes horrifically wrong....

So.. my buddy in the 173rd PIR is over in Germany training... and his wife just posts this on Facebook.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2046471/Dozens-U-S-paratroopers-injured-mock-battle-Slovakians-goes-horrifically-wrong.html#ixzz1a6JNnmwP

Dozens of U.S. Army paratroopers have been hurt during a massive airborne drop in Germany.

Sixteen of the 47 injured men are still in hospital, two of them in intensive care after the jump involving 1,000 soldiers went terribly wrong. They suffered head, spine and pelvic injuries.

The exercise pitted soldiers from the Vicenza, Italy-based 173rd Airborne Brigade in a mock-battle scenario with Slovakian soldiers and American troops from the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team over the Hohenfels training area in Bavaria, southern Germany.
...
...
...
The victims suffered a variety of broken bones and spinal injuries and every one of them required hospital treatment.

They were ferried to a local hospital in a fleet of ambulances.

A German civilian who witnessed the drop told Radio Bavaria: 'I’ve never seen so many parachutes in the sky. It was incredible sight, but I had no inkling that anything was wrong. I didn’t see any chutes tangled or men appearing to drop too fast.'

But the military said that they would not be staging an inquiry into what happened because the injury rate was “acceptable”.

No word from my buddy yet... she says she's not worried, and she's waiting to hear from him to find out his version of the story.


Sounds like when the 173rd dropped into Tiqrit, Iraq when the whole thing started... News reports said it was the largest parachute combat jump since WWII... my buddy told me they dropped most of them in 3ft of mud... waist deep in mud, it took them 6 hours to regroup.

http://www.stripes.com/news/europe/germany/paratroops-injured-during-germany-exercise-involving-173-airborne-1.156984

A soldier seen standing on crutches outside the clinic on Wednesday afternoon said he tore a ligament in his left foot when he hit a pothole in the drop zone. A private with the 173rd, he blamed a “bad DZ” for the injuries, and he said he saw other soldiers hurt. He declined to give his name.

You think?

Time to develop drop boots? If a pothole can take a soldier out of combat... Seriously?
Post edited by Buzzed at 10/8/2011 12:56:10 PM

Originally posted by: Buzzed


Time to develop drop boots? If a pothole can take a soldier out of combat... Seriously?

Have you ever skydived? Do you know what a PLF is? Bad winds and a shitty DZ will produce injuries. Its part of the territory and actually part of the risk assessment for an airborne drop.

BTW, Jump boots have been around for ages.

So yeah, go skydive, get a bad wind and land on shitty terrain, tell me how it goes when you slam into the ground at 15 or so MPH and even when properly trained for a PLF. Tell us boots would make the difference.